The Division was one of the original 75 divisions set up for the first Federal election in 1901. It has been held by the Australian Labor Party since it was created. Labor has never got less than 58 percent of the two-party vote in a general election. It has only come close to losing it once, when it got 53 percent in a 1935 by-election. It is the only original Division to be held by just one party since the first Federal election.